Sachin Tendulkar 'below poverty line'

Nellore: Indian cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar lives below the poverty line, if government records in the state of Andhra Pradesh are to believed.

Two special ration cards carrying Sachin Tenulkar's name and photographs were found during the exercise to weed out bogus ration cards here on Wednesday.

The fraudulent cards carrying Sachin's name and photograph were issued in Nellore town with details such as father's name, family members, missing. Incidentally, some cards were issued' in the name of buildings and some to streets.

Earlier a similar bogus ration card carrying Sania Mirza's name and photograph had been recovered from Hyderabad.

AP government has recently initiated a programme to weed out bogus white ration cards so that only genuine beneficiaries access the welfare schemes.

"As per our estimate there are a staggering 65 lakh bogus white ration cards in the state. In monetary terms the burden on the state exchequer on account of this could be hundreds of crores of rupees not just in terms of rice but also health insurance housing pensions and other such welfare schemes,'' a senior official said.